Friday, August 10, 2018

Guan Eng's stolen GST accusation will fall flat on his face

That is writer of the blog Third Force, Reggy Jessy ridiculing Lim Guan Eng for wanting to auction off the believed to be illegally seized superyatch Equinimity.

The new cabinet members have many versions of Ahmad Maslan, the former Deputy Minister who was the favourite target of then opposition and public for ridicule.

Since then, there is a Mat Maslan II emerging as in the education Minister, Dr Ahmad Maszlee. Young Syed Saddiq continued to utter senseless and inconsistent remarks everytime his mouth opens up in front of the press.

Now that they are in government, opposition leaders like Mat Sabu, Salahuddin Ayub, Saifuddin Nasution, Teresa Kok, Khalid Samad, Zuraidah Kamaruddin, Kulasegaran, and even Azmin recently with the "met Singapore official on HSR" boo boo turned out to be splitting images of Mat Maslan.

Unfortunately, the bigger Mat Maslan as in Lim Guan Eng went un-noticed.

One possible reason is the subject and technicalities of economics and finance is not within the general understanding of the majority of the public.

Using 1MDB as argument and Dato Najib or better still, Datin Seri Rosmah as target, one can side track any debate and even get away with murder. So the majority of the public may not realise or possibly still remain in-denial of the level of knowledge and incompetence of their elected leaders on governance and public policy matter.

The recent debate on GST vs SST saw another back-against-the wall situation for Guan Eng. His statement on "harga barang" turned out to be different from their GE14 campaign and turned out as inconsistent with the one with his senior aid, Tony Pua.

"Harga barang" was the main thrust of their campaign against BN. It was something felt, understood and appreciated by all the voters. And, it was more effective than the complex 1MDB alleged scandal.

GST was the main blame due partly to initial stage teething problem of the implementation. And, as now admitted by Saifuddin Nasution and Salahuddin Ayub, it was the traders taking advantage of the confusion and chaos that conveniently raise prices. Royal Custom's inability to answer queries was partly to blame.

When he came to office, new Minister of Finance, Guan Eng insisted on the immediate cancellation of GST. The public was not made known that the reason was to appease the Chinese traders and businessmen unable to evade taxes. Private attempt to convince him to maintain GST albeit lower rate was stubbornly refused.

Since "harga barang" did not "turun" in the 3 months GST was zerorised, public began to realised GST is a better system, SST will result in rise in prices and government revenue will be seriously limited.

An example is in the discussion below:

Even Mat Maslan in his debate in Parliament, was no reflection of the past perception made against him.

This time around Guan Eng's reaction was not to use 1MDB as scapegoat, but in the mode of Goebbels' tell a bigger lie propaganda methodology and Brazil's footback team strategy of attack is the best defense, he accused BN of stealing RM18 billion of GST collected.

Complain of refund being paid late, for 2 years as claimed Gerakan lawyer, Andy Leong, have been heard but stolen for RM18 billion is something else.

It is perplexing that RM18 billion stolen and Guan Eng has not made a police report. Since when do government had problems with GST refund payment? Why is it when PH takes over, suddenly the system failed and RM18 billion went missing as much as suddenly all train projects cost more to construct?

When asked, he said the internal audit had not been done. But how on earth could he made that conclusion and openly accuse under the protection of Parliament such blatant lies.

There is a code of conduct against Parliamentarian lying in the respected hall. However, it will likely not be taken up by the select committee and as happenned under BN rule, action against such misconduct tend to be used against wayward opposition Parliamentarian.

He pledged to report Najib and Minister of Finance to the police and MACC. That irked many of Najib supporters especially the manner Khairy is acting these days, there are those expecting him to jump ship after losing his bid for UMNO Presidency.

If the investigation turned out something, then the process of law should just continue accordingly. But if it turned out to be a lie, Guan Eng could be in hot soup with the law or in Parliament.

As it is, he is trying to wiggle out of the clear cut corruption case against him which insider claim he is sure to "kena", even the "terowong" case is clear cut guilty.

His propaganda mode already destroyed his credibility to the international media. It is heard China refuse to meet and deal with him.

Any proceeding against him could permanently damage his credibility. It is unlike the damage against Najib using propaganda and Mahathir abusing the law enforcement and recent development indicate the court too.

Syahir explained the outstanding unrefunded money and unavailability of money for refund does not mean it was stolen but the money was not remitted from the consolidated account or claims by traders are false.

Below is an example of traders making fraudulent claims on the refund:

Under SST, restaurants can make a lot of money from profiteering:

The RM19.4 billion is in the consolidated account on May 31st 2018. After May 10th 2018, who was in charge to hold back any transfer?

A civil servant familiar with GST system also wrote to Malaysiakini here.

Guan Eng ... its the age of social media and citizen journalism. Only the uneducated and gullible to propaganda would fall for such cheapshot.

There will always be those with access to information that will reveal the truth. Its just a question of reach but if it is found and explained well, it could go viral. Syahir has 1,400 likes and 396 comments.

Maybe this bullshit from the new government should be stopped. Active political activist, Major Dato Huan Cheng Guan said in his Facebook:

From April 1st 2016 to May 31st 2018, total required to be refunded was RM82.9 billion and RM63.5 billion was paid back. Since taking over government from early May 2017, Pakatan Harapan new government did not transfer money the outstanding due of RM19.4 billion from the Consolidated Trust Account to the Trust Account for refund.

The haste to be politically popular by zerorising GST resulted in government facing cashflow deficit. It is allowable for government to use the money in the consolidated account but the tax holiday given resulted in no cash inflow to be used to transfer to the Trust Account for refund.

As GPS is aggressive in their MA63 restoration, BN should also never give up improving and becoming the best opposition party we can have. Jangan dok sedih memanjang, nanti ada kaduk yang naik junjung.

Johari also disputed Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s claim that there is an RM19.248 billion shortfall in the GST Refund Trust Fund, which purportedly led to delays in paying the input tax credits.

To a question, he said the money is “100 percent not missing”.

He said government procedures require all revenue including GST to be placed in the Federal Consolidated Fund where it is used for government expenditure as approved by the Parliament throughthe supply bills.

A group of civil servants would then decide on how much money is needed in the trust account to make payments each month, and then apply for that money from the consolidated fund.

“When you put money in the trust fund, you have to be specific. This means claims that have been finalised, confirmed pass, and would have to be paid. This is the money that has to go into the trust fund.

“Of course (only the claims that have been verified). If not, people will file their claims and you put money in the trust fund, but what is the money doing sitting there?” he said.

If given an opportunity, he said he would ask the Customs Department for a breakdown of how much of the arrears in GST refunds had been withheld because of incomplete documentation, or suspected fraud.